Piano with Richard S.

Hello my name is Richard Schroff and I am new to teaching piano (at least officially, for money). With me the emphasis will be on making things fun and enjoyable. Doing what you want to do, playing what you want to play and not forcing anything on you that you really don't like. A lot of teachers don't seem to realize that the most important thing you can to do to teach your student is to make things interesting. If the interest isn't there then the student won't pay attention, won't want to practice and won't learn much. My first task will be identifying what types of music you like to listen to and play. Once we identify this you can start learning the piano by focusing on the types of music you enjoy playing. I will also teach you music theory and composition if you are interested, as I have a thorough understanding of both. As for my piano/music background I started playing piano when I was very young, about 8 or so and continued playing until 7th grade when I quit for a while. I quit playing because of the way I was taught by using level by level books with cheesy melodies that I was uninterested in. I started playing the piano again when I was 18 and was inspired by a Beethoven song. I quickly became obsessed with the piano finding out that I clearly have a natural talent for the piano that I never knew I had before. I soon became very skilled and a rather advanced pianist and would play composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff. At the level of skill I am at now I can easily play any Mozart or Beethoven sonata right away and can play virtually any piece at least at a reasonable speed. I have taken several Music Theory classes in college but have studied it more completely on my own and have composed a small amount of piano pieces. I feel I am good enough to teach some fairly advanced students, but because I am new to teaching the piano I would prefer you to be a beginner or intermediate level student. Thank You.